Palau Becomes First Nation To Ban Sunscreens That Harm Corals

Yessenia Funes

Sunscreen is essential for any tropical trip. After all, no one’s trying to return home with red, burnt skin. Your favourite brand may soon be illegal, however, if you’re headed to Palau, a 500-island archipelago in the Pacific. Why? Because some sunscreens contain chemicals that are harmful to coral.

On Thursday, the island nation passed a law that’ll ban sunscreens containing 10 coral-damaging chemicals starting 2020, per the BBC. Any retailers who ignore the law and continue to sell their products featuring chemicals like oxybenzone, octocrylene, and parabens can face $US1000 ($1404) fines, the AFP reports.

While the BBC reports Palau is the first country to set such a ban, Hawaii has already moved ahead with a ban of its own. In May, the US state finalised the ban to keep these chemicals off its reefs, which have been rapidly deteriorating. Sunscreen has played a tragic role.

The world’s reefs are already facing threats from a number of sources, including warming waters, plastic pollution, and ocean acidification. Sunscreen is just adding another layer of trouble. In Palau, which has some of the most diverse coral populations in the world, the reefs have been suffering since at least the late 1990s when the islands suffered a massive bleaching event that killed a third of the corals there.